Contents

The story begins with Professor Elor Kaya (a cougar, though referred to as a panther in much of the book) of the University of Highridge fleeing from the Nightwatch, a secret police organization under the despotic Emperor Salaar.

He barely manages to board a plane and avoid arrest. He is meant to be traveling to Archers Cove, a popular resort city, but when the plane arrives at the Basecraft Cirrostratus (a sort of cross between a rigid airship and an aircraft carrier used as an airport), he deplanes and heads for the cargo hold.

Here, he joins a parallel society of revelers, thugs, gangsters, and refugees- including his former lover, Vinz (a wolf) who left the surface for the holds nine years earlier. Tensions between them are understandably high.

While in the holds, Elor meets Alrie, a young female ferret who proves to be too smart for her own good; Kerro (a stoat, the smooth-talking night club owner who pulls Elor quite unwillingly into a life of crime; Bram (an otter), a defector from the Imperial Air Force; and Laz (a red fox), Vinz's current love interest.

When it is discovered that Alrie knows a secret that could bring the Great Wolven Imperium to its knees, Emperor Salaar plots to bring the situation to an end once and for all, forcing Elor and the rest of the denizens of the cargo holds to fight for their lives.

Author Justin Lamar cites a wide variety of stylistic inspirations for the work, including "The Rocketeer," "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," and "TaleSpin" as well as numerous period illustrations from 1930s adventure magazines.

The story falls squarely into the Dieselpunk genre because of its 1930s-inspired setting, emphasis on aviation, and the central role of a cheap, kerosene-derived fuel called K-39.

The political landscape is inspired not only by Fascist Italy and Hitler's Germany, but by Franco's Spain and to a lesser extent by the military-industrial complex of the present-day United States.

The Great Wolven Imperium, as run by Emperor Salaar, is extremely hostile toward drug and alcohol use, small businesses, sexual freedom, and weapon ownership, while at the same time extremely friendly to a small cadre of industrialists. The holds of the basecraft represent a last refuge for those who wish to be free, but also a cautionary tale about the rise of a criminal underworld in the face of a prohibitionist culture.

Most or all of the technology described in the book was available in some form by around 1937; however, the prevalence of such technology in the world of the story suggests a level of technical development more similar to the 1950s.

Television has largely eclipsed radio in popularity, and the Great Wolven Imperium has regular television broadcasts.

Magnetic recordings in the story are distributed on a broad acetate belt known as a sonigram (superficially similar to the Dictabelt machines of the mid-20th century), and have completely eclipsed vinyl recordings in popularity.

The Basecraft itself even features a primitive form of cable television, which although technically possible with 1930s technology was unheard of before the 1970s.